Ramblings of a modern druidess

Tag Archives: Poetry

It’s been a while since my latest blog. Obviously I’ve been busy with promoting The Empath, but unfortunately I also took a nasty spill of my horse and completely smashed my right foot.

Thankfully surgery went well, but it does mean I’m home bound till early August, at the very least.

So, plenty of time to write book III of The Fire Trilogy, but also time for something else.

My cousin, Tom van der Vlies, is a poet as well, so we decided to take on a project together. Inspired by JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we’re in the process of creating twenty poems.

Tom will handle the magical beasts and I will take on ten magical creatures. Some may be familiar to you from the books or the movie, others may not.

It may take a while before we have it published, but eventually you will be able to buy the complete collection.

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To give you some incentive, here are the first two of Magical Beasts & Creatures!

I neglect to retrieve my mail. It happens. Quite often actually. So it wasn’t until today, on a Sunday no less, that I discovered the long awaited book had arrived. Selected, by Brian Molko aka my muse.

First surprise was the size, I thought it would be bigger, but it’s the same size as my other little poetry books and it oozes the same vibe. I like it. Granted, after a first quick glance I was a bit disappointed to discover it’s just the lyrics, except for the introduction, which is just lovely. No explanations what the lyrics are about, why it is special to him or when/where it was written.

But then I realized, that is not fair of me. Not fair at all. Placebo rarely publishes full lyrics. Of course there are many fan sites who have taken up this task with a passionate and fanatic gleam in their eyes, but even they get it wrong. And quite regularly, if my muse is to be believed. So he’s setting the record straight. And without the aid of the music, the words come through more clearly, they are stripped naked, as is he, for all the world to see. It must have been quite a nerve-wracking experience to actually go through with this.

Maybe you’ll think me mad as a snake, but I already started to make it my own by adding notes and words of my own, highlighting some parts, words that give me new ideas for my book and reading lyrics of songs I never really liked. Suddenly they have an entirely new meaning. How refreshing!

There was an option to have it signed. I did not take it. Don’t get me wrong, if you ordered a signed copy, more power to you, but it just didn’t appeal to me. I did sign my own book for him, as well as for Stefan and Steve, but that was different. Their music inspired The Elemental, so naturally they deserved to have a personalized copy.

If our paths cross and the moment is right, I might ask him to sign it. But if it’s not in the cards, it’s not. For now, I’m perfectly content to snuggle up next to the fire, with my coffee in one hand, Selected in the other. Thank you Bee, for giving the perfect Yule gift xxx